Agricultural Drainage Assistance Program

Do you have an agricultural field with poor drainage? If so, King County’s Agricultural Drainage Assistance Program (ADAP) can help. ADAP helps agricultural property owners keep water flowing off their agricultural lands by providing both technical and financial support.

How to I apply to this program?

Most ADAP projects need to get only one permit. Agricultural landowners need to follow these best management practices (BMPs) for drainage projects. If a property owner in an Agricultural Production District wants to help water flow their property, then they need to:

• Have an approved farm plan prepared in conjunction with the King Conservation District
• Follow the ADAP BMPs
• Apply for one, free permit, a Hydraulic Project Approval (HPA) from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

Am I part of an Agricultural Protection District?

The ADAP developed a classification system for agricultural waterways. This is one of the key parts of the permit process for maintaining water on agricultural lands. The waterway classification determines which BMPs are required for a waterway maintenance project. King County classified the waterways in the five Agricultural Production Districts:

• Snoqualmie River (1.8 KB)
• Sammamish River (629 KB)
• Enumclaw & Upper Green River (1.2 MB)
• Lower Green River (551 KB)

Waterways outside the Agricultural Production Districts will be classified as needed.

What do I need to do?

These are the four most common impacts to agricultural drainage:

• Sediment deposition
• Reed canary grass 
• Beaver dams
• Damaged culverts

ADAP created best practices to address these common impacts in the Manual of Best Management Practices for Maintenance of Agricultural Waterways in King County. This manual lists the best practices required to perform an ADAP project. 

Additional information:

• Fish Passage Restoration